Judgment Sales in Japan Halted After Voice Actor Arrest, Western Release Under Consideration

Noooo, it’s almost here!

This terrible and i don't wanna diminish how bad it is for anyone to be taking high level drugs like that, but i don't see a justification for halting the entire distribution of a game/movie/whatever over the actions of one actor.

Especially since most westerners wouldn't have even known about this incident prior to buying the game.
Then again, maybe i'm just desensitized due to how many hollywood actors get caught with drugs regularly and still have careers.

Its weird that a video game could be at the mercy of actors behavior.

So molesting kids is ok but drugs is a no no what a joke. If you could't watch movies because of drugs Hollywood and the music industry would not exist. 😂😂😂

I was really looking forward to Judgement. I really hope SEGA look at the the big picture.
One person does not define the work of many,

@Ryumoau I dont understand the problem. If you watch what kind of stuff they sometimes release. They have had to be on drugs. Rape, childporn, 13 years old is legal there i really think they are strange.

Sega's Western branch needs to talk sense into the Japanese branch when it comes to this one.

Isn't the western release receiving full English voice acting? Take out the Japanese voice acting if it's that serious. Problem solved, right? Or is the issue also that his likeness is being used as well?

@Fight_Sora_Fight Come on its coke and i dont smoke or use drugs.

If the guy wants to sniff some lines in his free time, that's his choice. This is beyond stupid.

@Flaming_Kaiser Neither do I ! However, being somewhat familiar with Japanese culture I could see them cancel/hold sales of Judgement moving forward.

I hope that is not the case.

So stupid. Troy bakers scarf collection is a crime against humanity and he gets away scot free

This is ridiculous. Paedophilia is ripe in japanese culture but do some Charlie and that's yer lot? I don't do drugs or advocate their use but this is a stupid overreaction. Angus deyton, Lawrence d'aglio (or however you bloody spell it) were both guilty of cocaine abuse and they're still involved in the media without too much damage to their long-term reputation.

Whilst I am not condoning the actions of that person, I am stunned by this. If the game released, I bet no one would have known about the person involved and wouldn't have made any difference at all. If it's that big of a deal, why not just remove any credits they had in the game? Even use a made up name if its that important, scrub any credit they were given and, if necessary, replace the name of the voice actor to someone else - real or fake.

They could 'digitally' alter the voice too so its different enough that its differentiates itself from the actual voicing - credit the person that alters the voice instead.

I wouldn't be surprised if numerous others had used recreational drugs - just never been caught and/or arrested for it. Like I said though, if Sega hadn't made more of this, no-one would know. The easiest thing to have done is just remove any credits and/or credit some one else if necessary...

This is idiotic.
If we were to remove from the market every piece of entertainment somehow related to someone doing drugs, then there would be no entertainment at all!
No books, no games, no movies, no music... I mean, rock would disappear completely!!

@Flaming_Kaiser Rape and child porn are illegal in Japan fam, not sure what you're on about.

Nooooo, I hope it’s not delayed. He was just getting into character!!

That’s ridiculous, and cocaine is awesome to use at parties and social events.

This is really disappointing as it does look like there'll most likely be a delay to the Western release now, given Japan's comparatively way harsher attitude towards illegal drug use (much bigger reputation no-no there)...just hope it's not too big a delay! 😕

That’s interesting. It’s an interesting attitude on drugs, which are terrible to abuse, but halting the game is a bit much.

Halting the game, is it really that serious?

I suspect that re-do the affected parts and re-released the game. Would be silly to throw everything away due to a single voice actor.

Edit: Part of the reason I enjoy Japanese games is the character sometimes behave differently from how I would expect. seems like there’s a reason for that...

@Ryumoau
The way I see it is if an adult wants to drink out of control or use drugs out of control, as long as it doesn't effect the work they do or people around them, so be it. An adult is allowed to make his or her choice. The dumb thing here that Sega is missing the big picture on is that they're not just scrubbing this guy's work but all the other people involved with the game and they're screwing over people who want to play it. Seems really stupid to me.

cocaine is hell.people is simple don't do drugs.i don't do drugs. smoke.its really bad for your health.word up son

@Flaming_Kaiser "13 years old is legal there."
It really isn't. Japanese law is far more complicated, with almost all prefectures setting the age of consent at 18, or even 20.

Hey Author~

Small note: Since this game is motion captured and based off of real actors, you may want to remove the photo depicting the wrong character/actor from your article.

It's misleading and the actor portraying the main character did nothing wrong. It would allow someone to assume it was him that was arrested on drug charges and not Pierre Taki.

That's a harsh Judgement.

@thatguyEZ it is now but up until 2014 that wasn't the case

Well you couldn't employ anyone from my city. Its hard to go out and find anyone that isn't smashed on their poison of choice, having the time of their lives.

I always assumed everyone in the Push Square comments section was on drugs 🤔

Edit: changed wording, too early in the morning to be making witty comments, I guess.

I really don't know what to say other than this is a major bummer.

@Fandabidozi Lol, especially all those ones about piracy. Those guys get... intense.

He is no longer the voice actor for Olaf. Disney's replacing him in Frozen 2.

No drugs, but underage barely clothed girls are A-Okay in Japanese video games. Whaaateveeer!

Hey, I can understand why they take this position. Illegal drugs fuels so much crime, the amount of lives destroyed by people being forced to be involved.. it's truly horrific what goes on behind the scenes. Seems to be little evidence of any empathy from the users of these substances.

Hopefully Sega still ship the game with only a small delay anyway.

@KingdomHeartsFan
I understand well enough. If the culture is zero tolerance so that this hugely damaging behaviour isn't normalised in society, then I can understand the logic.

But suggesting Japanese people are hysterical for having a different perspective than yourself is seriously uncool. Don't be that person.

@KingdomHeartsFan

I can see you're not willing to move past your bias here and consider a different perspective. Perhaps something to reflect on at some other time. I'll move on.

@KingdomHeartsFan

Don't worry, I won't. Have a nice day.

What?!?! Thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard

well SEGA still have the Judgement release day banner up on their twitter, so that gives me hope.

There is only one way this game will ever reach the people.
Pierre must publicly commit harakiri in order to restore his and more importantly SEGA’s honor.

Why would they cancel sales of the game because a voice actor was arrested for drugs

how does it fit together that they halted sale of the game yet on amazon japan it jumped to number 1?

@thatguyEZ I took them how many years to ban a game about rape. I did not say it right in game and manga.

@RainbowGazelle Ok then wiki is wrong i guess.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Asia only you cant make kids if i understand it correctly.

Maybe im reading it wrong.

@Tasuki I didn’t swear or use any foul language. I used the exact same word that’s in the article. Cocaine

@Tasuki apologies. I’ll try to be more careful